Disruptive Telephony

If you go back in time to September 2008 and recall the whole kerfuffle over the Gogo in-flight WiFi service NOT allowing VoIP calls (which we also covered on Blue Box podcast #83), one of the threads that was floating around was the wish that they would at least allow chat over Skype. If you couldn't make calls, at least you could have IM conversations.

I didn't really pay any further attention to the matter and didn't find myself on planes with Gogo WiFi until this past week... and found that yes, indeed, sometime in the last two+ years Gogo did relax the Skype chat restriction (at least on Delta flights).

The FAQ now clearly states that Skype IM is allowed, while VoIP services are still not permitted:

While I was on a short flight and didn't feel the need to pay for the in-flight WiFi, it was nice to know that I could have used Skype IM if I had wanted to.

If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:

• subscribing to my email newsletter;
• following me on Twitter; or
• subscribing to the RSS feed